HoratioGates:She shouldn't have had it be about sleeping with former students. If a male teacher wrote about sleeping with his ex-students a lot of the people who aren't upset would be upset. If a male teacher wrote about sleeping with male ex-students? Not as sexy then?

If a garbage truck driver or a postal employee wrote about giving extra-special service to certain customers, no problem. If a teacher wrote porn that stayed out of the pants of any of her past or present students pants, no problem. Teachers work around minors though, and they have to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. It would be like a judge writing a crime novel where the hero was a crooked judge. It might be a good read, but anyone going before that judge would have a legitimate right to be upset.

We need to stop pretending that teachers aren't human beings. They have lives outside of their jobs. You may not agree with their beliefs and practices but its really none of our business unless it breaks the law. I think our reaction as a society about this article reflects a lot more on our fears about teenagers growing up than about this teacher being a risk to her students.

Great Janitor:beakerxf: WhippingBoy: Why do so many ugly people read/write erotica. Don't they realize that it creeps the rest of us out?

Why would anyone check out the author before reading smut? Do you also limit your self to porn produced by guys you find attractive?

When I read erotic stories, I avoid girl/girl stories written by men. I prefer stories written by someone who might have experience on the subject. That is the only reason why I check out an author before reading the story.

Actually, I do agree about that. I'll check out the name before I read girl/girl, as well. I just don't care what the author looks like. All I need is for it to be written so that I can visualize what I need and can suspend my disbelief.

They're gonna be "50 Shades of Compensated" when this gets cleared out by the SCOTUS.Seems the SCOTUS has already ruled on this issue before.You cannot fire people for exercising freedom of speech when they aren't at work.

Clutch2013:you have pee hands: Lsherm: Well, like everything else, context is key. If you're writing a book about a heroic Ephebophiliac who sleeps with underage boys to get back at her ex-husband, it's not illegal, but it's certainly creepy. Especially if you're someone who works with kids. "It's fiction" is a cop out. Imagine you had a co-worker who only wrote fictional stories about breaking into your house and killing you. Perfectly legal, but still farking creepy.

prjindigo:They're gonna be "50 Shades of Compensated" when this gets cleared out by the SCOTUS.Seems the SCOTUS has already ruled on this issue before.You cannot fire people for exercising freedom of speech when they aren't at work.

Yep. Should be fun to watch the school system send out a vote for a school levy to pay for the asswhupping she should be able to give them by hiring a competent attorney.

JonnyG:So there's nothing wrong with every female teacher reading garbage like this as long as they didn't write it... Now that we have that straightened out.

Until some twit decides that they don't want their snowflake to be taught by someone with reading material like this, regardless of if they bring it to class or not, and then we end up holding teachers to a higher level of morality while asking "Why don't we have enough teachers?"

Great Janitor:JonnyG: So there's nothing wrong with every female teacher reading garbage like this as long as they didn't write it... Now that we have that straightened out.

Until some twit decides that they don't want their snowflake to be taught by someone with reading material like this, regardless of if they bring it to class or not, and then we end up holding teachers to a higher level of morality while asking "Why don't we have enough teachers?"

We've been told not to go to bars within the district we teach in (which comprises 5 "cities" - combined population of maybe 50-60,000). The theory being if we are spotted leaving a bar in an impaired state by one of our students it would reflect negatively on our character.

I don't understand parents these days. I can't even imagine coming to my parents to tell them a teacher wrote a dirty novel. They'd have told me to mind my own business and do my homework and that would have been the end of it

HoratioGates:She shouldn't have had it be about sleeping with former students. If a male teacher wrote about sleeping with his ex-students a lot of the people who aren't upset would be upset. If a male teacher wrote about sleeping with male ex-students? Not as sexy then?

If a garbage truck driver or a postal employee wrote about giving extra-special service to certain customers, no problem. If a teacher wrote porn that stayed out of the pants of any of her past or present students pants, no problem. Teachers work around minors though, and they have to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. It would be like a judge writing a crime novel where the hero was a crooked judge. It might be a good read, but anyone going before that judge would have a legitimate right to be upset.

NashMcNash:My wife is both a high school English teacher and a writer. It's really scary to think that something she writes during her down-time could get her fired from her job. Granted, she's writing fiction stories based on Greek mythology and not erotic novels. Safe, I suppose.

You mean she is writing a book that has a bunch of made up gods instead of the baby Jesus?

Whether we like it or not, teachers are considered role models, so the best policy is to keep their proclivities discreet. It's why most americans are ok with havin a gay male hairdresser, but not with havin a gay male teach their kids.

Anyone remember that trashy chick pumkin from the vh1 show "flava of love"? They had a follow up show called "for the love of money", that was being shown on tv whilst pumkin was teaching at a high school that my cousin also teaches at. She was boozin, fightin and bangin dudes while her students watched. Went on for weeks before admin cought on n dumped her. But she didn't have tenure.

o'really:Whether we like it or not, teachers are considered role models, so the best policy is to keep their proclivities discreet. It's why most americans are ok with havin a gay male hairdresser, but not with havin a gay male teach their kids.

Well, we already know that a large percentage of Americans barely quality as idiots.

I just purchased it. Why not? I haven't bothered with the 50 Shades of Gray thing, too expensive and if they're as poorly written as the first 3 Twilight books, I'd rather save my money and I don't indulge in this genre but maybe once every couple of years or so. But hey, 2.99? Even if the book sucks (insert snarky pun here at your leisure) I'm still going to support this lady's right to free speech. Hope it helps her to hire a truly kick arse attorney and win her right to free speech off of school hours and property.

Not sure if this was covered, but right now I lived in the school district. It isn't as subby put with the screwed, most don't count. At worst, they are along the lines of "HAHAHA, this is funny....and hot". The people who are upset about it are more taking the stance of "She would deal with this in another life" but aren't pushing too hard to kick her out because it's not against the rules.

Great Janitor:BarkingUnicorn: vrax: o'really: Since teachers are salary, does this mean she was suspended with pay? If so, free vacation!

I thought that teachers were all gettin' rich from their high pay. She probably already has a mansion and a Ferrari.

Well, she seems to have a lawyer; that ain't cheap.

She was suspended with pay for 3 weeks during investigation. She got 5 days unpaid as punishment for the acceptable-use violation.

She could have some sort of prepaid legal service. I've looked into getting it, one I found only cost $25/month.

Or her husband could have a job paying well enough to be able to afford one.

Or her lawyer is taking it on pro bono, or on a contingency. If there's good evidence that the discipline was in retaliation for the publication and the acceptable use policy thing looks bogus, her local ACLU would take it because the employer is a public school.

If she did tell the school first and then went ahead after they said no, and dared them to find her by identifying herself as a teacher in the preface, maybe she intended all along to milk the conflict for publicity for the book. This could be considered shrewd marketing but would not help the lawsuit.

I'm going to take a guess that had it not been a erotic novel, the school would have looked the other way on the social networking issue and raved about how awesome it was that they had an english teacher who published a novel.

specialkae:I just purchased it. Why not? I haven't bothered with the 50 Shades of Gray thing, too expensive and if they're as poorly written as the first 3 Twilight books, I'd rather save my money and I don't indulge in this genre but maybe once every couple of years or so. But hey, 2.99? Even if the book sucks (insert snarky pun here at your leisure) I'm still going to support this lady's right to free speech. Hope it helps her to hire a truly kick arse attorney and win her right to free speech off of school hours and property.

Fizpez:Great Janitor: JonnyG: So there's nothing wrong with every female teacher reading garbage like this as long as they didn't write it... Now that we have that straightened out.

Until some twit decides that they don't want their snowflake to be taught by someone with reading material like this, regardless of if they bring it to class or not, and then we end up holding teachers to a higher level of morality while asking "Why don't we have enough teachers?"

We've been told not to go to bars within the district we teach in (which comprises 5 "cities" - combined population of maybe 50-60,000). The theory being if we are spotted leaving a bar in an impaired state by one of our students it would reflect negatively on our character.

So, instead of hitting the local speakeasy, and risk being seen by junior in a state fit for his pa, you have to drive miles out and risk a dwi that would ACTUALLY hamper your ability to teach, not having a way to get to work, and all?

This is okay. It's teaching the students that the right of free speech in this country is not all it's cracked up to be. If we're lucky, this will kill the hopes and dreams of some of the students who want to become writers themselves. We don't need more writers anyway. They have a tendency to be free thinkers, and we all know that free thinkers cause all kinds of trouble.

ehh, they're not terribly red. I mean, not as bad as some of the bumblefark towns further south. Canton is about 20-30 minutes south of Akron, where I grew up. Also, there's an airport there.

More importantly. I friggin know where this high school is! I did a really horrible community theatre production of Rogers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" via the North Canton Playhouse back in '03....which at the time used the auditorium/theatre space of Hoover High School. I feel so unclean! lol